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RE: Fossil fuel use at SFU

I am against coming up with policies that make little to no difference to some researchers while greatly affecting the work of others. Coming up with a list of exceptions just dilutes the message.

 

In my team, we travel mostly to see colleagues at the conferences and I encourage my students to attend these conferences to present their work and build their network. With the hindsight gain over the past two years, virtual meetings fall short in effective learning from others and fail miserably with regards to networking. Depriving a student or a faculty member (especially the early career ones) from attending these technical meetings, even though they may be considered non-essential by some, will severely hinder their career progress in the long term.

 

Behraad

 

From: Derek Bingham <derek_bingham@sfu.ca>
Sent: Monday, November 1, 2021 2:40 PM
To: Ronda Arab <ronda_arab@sfu.ca>; Stacy Pigg <stacy_pigg@sfu.ca>
Cc: Anthony Perl <aperl@sfu.ca>; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) <academic-discussion@sfu.ca>
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFU

 

Given the last few policy initiatives (e.g., travel), I am not sure I want any more policy directives from the University.  

 

 

Derek Bingham

Professor

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science

Simon Fraser University

From: Ronda Arab <ronda_arab@sfu.ca>
Sent: Monday, November 1, 2021 2:33:39 PM
To: Stacy Pigg
Cc: Anthony Perl; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFU

 

I think it would be great to come up with a university policy that kept travel to a minimum. Obviously different faculty have different needs, and certain kinds of travel are necessary. But it’s also pretty clear that many or most of us travel more than we need to. A carefully written policy would consider the different kinds of work different faculty do. 

Ronda Arab 

Sent by magic 

 



On Nov 1, 2021, at 2:23 PM, Stacy Pigg <stacy_pigg@sfu.ca> wrote:

 Anthony, 

How would your proposal ensure equity across faculty research areas? Some faculty do all their research in a location only accessible by airplane. Other faculty do their research at SFU. And others can work anywhere. All travel is not for conferences.

 

SFU is, you recall “engagin the world”

Sent from my iPhone

Dr. Stacy Leigh Pigg

Professor of Anthropology

Simon Fraser University

 



On Nov 1, 2021, at 12:43 PM, Anthony Perl <aperl@sfu.ca> wrote:



Hello colleagues,

SFU is way behind on the "flying less" academic agenda.  See:

https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2020/09/17/flying-less-concordia-encourages-academics-to-reduce-their-carbon-footprint.html

At some point, and it is only a matter of time, we are going to have to ration flying.  Two flights per year might still be too many.  But I'd be ok with SFU capping the number of flights that will be reimbursed for travel by administrators and faculty.  Maybe we could trade teaching one more course for each flight we take above the cap?  That would address multiple needs simultaneously.

Anthony

On 2021-11-01 12:28 p.m., Ronda Arab wrote:

Do a lot of staff and faculty have electric cars? I would think that in itself would put pressure.

 

I think Covid has taught us a lot about how much of our professional air travel is *really* necessary. I’ve felt guilty about my air travel footprint for a while and am going to seriously cut down on conferences and research trips.  

 

Ronda 

 

Sent by magic 

 



On Nov 1, 2021, at 12:23 PM, Martin Hahn <mhahn@sfu.ca> wrote:



No. It is rather pitiful.  There still are a total of 4 level 2 charging stations at SFU. (There are  6 at Capilano U, around 50 at UBC plus 6 level 3).  Here,  there is also a bunch of 110v outlets available for charging in West Mall.

I was told when I inquired pre-covid  that more would be built soon and that SFU was waiting for gov. subsidies.  But there have been, and continue to be, such subsidies and nothing seems to be happening.

Overall, a token effort

 

MH

On 11/1/2021 11:54 AM, Ronda Arab wrote:

Are there very many electrical charging stations for staff, faculty and students who use electric cars to get to work?

Ronda 

Sent by magic 

 



On Nov 1, 2021, at 11:53 AM, Craig Scratchley <wcs@sfu.ca> wrote:



Here's one of a number of articles on the subject:

 

     https://www.bctechnology.com/news/2021/7/8/New-Green-Energy-Biomass-Plant-Powers-up-SFU-Burnaby-&-UniverCity-Drastically-Decreases-Greenhouse-Gas-(GHG)-Emissions.cfm

New Green Energy Biomass Plant Powers up SFU Burnaby & UniverCity, Drastically Decreases Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. Burnaby, BC, July 8, 2021--A new biomass plant located on Burnaby Mountain is now in full operation, providing heat and hot water to most of SFU's Burnaby campus and approximately half of the SFU UniverCity community. This plant has drastically decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making Simon Fraser University (SFU) a leader in the use of green energy with one of the smallest GHG footprints of any university in Canada.

They were working on this plant for a couple of years perhaps, but the switchover was just this past summer apparently.  If you live in UniverCity, your building might get heating from this plant as well.

 

Also, I have noticed that facilities services has some electric vehicles, but I couldn't find a fossil/hybrid/electric breakdown in a quick search.  Presumably they are trying to lower the fraction of non-electric vehicles as older vehicles go out of service.  I once read that because it takes a lot of energy and resources to produce a vehicle, there is apparently some environmental argument to allowing a vehicle to live out its useful life.  I never looked into the detailed tradeoffs.

 

     Craig 

From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:28:31 AM
To: Simon Watkins; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFU

 

Thanks, Simon! Glad to know about the wood scraps. 

Nicky

From: Simon Watkins
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:17:46 AM
To: Nicky Didicher; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Re: Fossil fuel use at SFU

 

Actually SFU now burns biofuel for its heating, consisting of wood scraps mostly.

They upgraded the heating plant a couple of years ago.

Still true about the cars though

 

Simon Watkins

Department of Physics

Simon Fraser University

8888 University Drive

Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6

Canada

Tel:778 782 5763

 

 

From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Sent: November 1, 2021 11:05 AM
To: academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: Fossil fuel use at SFU

 

While I’m pleased to know that SFU is increasing its efforts to remove invested money from the fossil fuel industry, isn’t our main boiler in the basement of the library (I believe the biggest one at a university in Western Canada) run off diesel? And aren’t the majority of SFU vehicles still gasoline powered?

Nicky

 

Nicky Didicher, English, 

Simon Fraser University,

778-782-4337, didicher@sfu.ca

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At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

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